Rieger Hotel with Howard Hanna

Through collaboration and industrial production methods, I create dining experiences using restaurants as alternative exhibition spaces. This is most evident in two projects titled “Tapas Micros” and “Paper Plates.” Both projects were created as collaborative experiments within the parameters of food service. Both were created with direct input from local chefs, notably, Carmen Cabia of Lill’s on 17th Bistro, and Howard Hanna of the Rieger Hotel Grill and Exchange.I realized there was something missing in the presentation of their food, which was so highly regarded. The plates they used lacked the creativity they exhibited in their food presentations. I wanted to put their work on a pedestal, in a sense, elevating it off the surface of the plate. Using the industrial forming method slip casting, I was able to create a series of custom porcelain dinnerware that exhibited the same consistency and durability as standard restaurant ware, with uniqueness that matched the food they so carefully prepared. The projects coalesced in a series of private dinners held at various restaurants in Kansas City and elsewhere. Each chef reacted to the work in new ways creating food designed to fit each new form.